


@mysticalfriendlyintrovert's Infection au

by Detroit_become_Merlin



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Animal Abuse, Animal Instincts, Animal Traits, Body Horror, Collars, Dehumanization, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Hybrids, Kid Hermits, Mycophobia, Overprotective Grian, Team as Family, Winged Charles | Grian, forced drugging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27148288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Detroit_become_Merlin/pseuds/Detroit_become_Merlin
Summary: Heed the tagsAfter the HEP agency killed all the sheep and changed the environment in the shopping district the island fought backthank you, Mysti for letting me write this.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 15
Kudos: 205





	1. Chapter 1: The Discovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MysticalfriendlyIntrovert](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalfriendlyIntrovert/gifts).



> HEED THE TAGS
> 
> Check out @MysticalFriendlyIntrovert over at Tumblr and give this au more love, she's the mastermind behind this au

Scar had a bad feeling when he saw the HEP hounds kill the last of the sheep; he had a bad feeling when they sheared all the cows, he when he began replacing the mycelium with the grass. But Scar ignored it, in favour of what exactly? The hermits’ trust? The hermits’ happiness? Because of his pride?

Perhaps, but The Resistance had been quiet for 3 weeks, ever since they got rid of all the sheep and they hadn’t seen them at all, their stores stopped stocking up, their builds were in such a state of stillness that it looked wrong to the hermit’s eyes, and not once had they messaged them in chat or died.

Except for a panicked message from Etho, that slowly descended into nonsense the more he typed but back then they ignored it, thinking it was about the sheep they had slaughtered.

Nonetheless, Cub had taken the initiative and commanded the HEP agency to look for the Resistance HQ. They had too much information on HEP, and yet they knew nothing about them, they set off.

They split off into groups Keralis, Xisuma, and Scar on one team and Bdubs, False, and Cub on the other, Tango offered to stay behind just in case, and they dug, they kept digging and digging, until hours of work later Scar's team dropped to what seemed like a different world.

The room was dark with the only light coming from the bioluminescent mushrooms that came up to their knees. It was overgrown with mycelium and vines overtaking what was once a white, brightly lit room, the meeting table was overrun with small mushrooms, and spores kept puffing out from seemingly random places on the floor.

The foliage rustled with an unknown creature and they pulled their swords and torches out. 

Cub had been contacted, and the team was ordered to look around, see if they could find any secrets or anything they could use against the Resistance as the others meet up at the entrance.

They carefully waded their way through the foliage, destroying the mushrooms with their heavy steps and slashes of swords, whimpers, wails, and growls could be heard echoing off the walls, and the three members of HEP froze until they died down. Something was definitely in there with them. 

Scar gulped and gestured for the others to keep moving, something dropped in water, and Xisuma swivelled to see a small pond with a layer of moss covering it just at the entrance of one of the hallways.

He edged the water and flinched back when something from beyond the depths moved. 

“What is this?” Keralis whispered, “what have they been doing?” Scar was beginning to think that this goes beyond their little turf war, “X, do you think something happened to them? Etho was trying to tell us something I’m sure of it.”

X hesitated, which didn’t mean well, he was the admin, he was supposed to know the going on in the server, he was supposed to protect them from harm, and yet something had harmed his hermits, “I’m beginning to think that too.”

They weaved through more of the foliage and whimpers started echoing along the walls again, low growls and hisses were among them, it wasn’t until Keralis tripped over that they found out what exactly was in there with them.

Before it could escape, Xisuma pinned it down with a sword, with a single glance X could tell that it was humanoid and familiar, but it had dog ears and tail as well as mushrooms growing from his skin, and its eyes were glowing white. But he didn’t have time to fully understand what he was looking at before it let out an ear-piercing wail and spores puffed out from the creature. Xisuma was tackled to the ground by a larger animal; its claws dug into his shoulder as it roared in a fury, scratching and biting at Xisuma’s netherite armour.

“X” Scar yelled and sliced at the monster, only for it to jump away and run on all fours towards the creature that Xisuma pinned. It picked it up before jumping up to one of the taller mushrooms, in the light of the mushrooms glow X could see that the full of its eyes shone the colour of mycelium, it had wings, and a lion's tail with feathers at the end instead of fur. Like the other creature, it was humanoid and familiar. It emitted a high-pitched screech at the three members of the HEP agency before gliding away with the smaller one in his grasp.

Disappearing into the dark of the base.

X let out a breath he didn’t know he was keeping as Scar helped him up, although X noticed how pale the mayor was as he kept staring at the direction the figure headed towards, “Was that Grian?” Scar whispered, and Xisuma paled.

That was Grian.

Looking back, the smaller creature could also be one of the Resistance members. Ren if he had to guess.

The words don't seem to register in his brain, 

The images don't register in his brain.

Nothing was registering in his brain other than the messages Etho had sent to them, Grian's roaring screeching figure as he interpreted Xisuma as a threat, and Ren's wails of fear as he was pinned to the ground by X's sword.

Footsteps, whines, and hisses echoed through the overgrown base, as Cub, False, and Bdubs crowded around them and started asking question after question. "What happened?" False asked.

"Did you find anything?" Cub.

"Where's the Resistance?" Bdubs.

They couldn't answer, they were still processing what had happened, Keralis started shaking, and tears flowed down Scar's cheeks. X starred in the distance, frozen and pale. 

Why hadn't he noticed?


	2. The Capture

Scar watched as X paced in the HEP headquarters, it had been 3 days since their discovery and the other hermits were getting antsy, they would ask questions about the Resistance, and so far the Agency had been refuting them to not cause a panic.

They're working on getting the Resistance into an underground lab that they had built to house them and study them, but at the end of the day, their goal was to cure them.

Except, it was proving to be difficult, they had noticed that they were tinier now, with Grian being the biggest and Jevin, the potential smallest as they have no clue where he could be. They prayed that Jevin had escaped whatever was happening to the rest of the Resistance.

Nonetheless, it was harder to find them, they kept hiding under the foliage, and Grian kept attacking them, no matter what they did. They tried explaining to them that they only wanted to help, to no avail.

They tried giving them something to jog their memories, to no avail.

They. Tried. Everything. To no avail.

Scar leaned his head against his palm as he opened his communicator. Cub had sent him a private message just last night about how it's time to stop treating them like humans when they're so obviously not.

Scar had hesitated, they were still his friends, Grian, Stress, and Ren were still his neighbours, how would the rest of the hermits feel about their mayor treating their own like animals?

How would he feel about it? He didn't know, but seeing his admin pace around trying to think of ways to help them without hurting them makes Scar's heart clench.

So with a heavy heart and a silent apology, he agreed to the order. Besides, he made a promise.

Cub glanced down at his communicator when Scar texted him, agreeing to the suggestion from last night.

Cub sighed and nodded to False and Bdubs, the three quietly snuck out from the meeting room and put on their HEP suits and made their way to the entrance of the Resistance.

Bdubs had been chosen as bait for Grian, he had drawn the short end of the straw and was now in the process of putting on a K9 training suit, they had used to train the HEP hounds. 

Bdubs's breath stuttered as he tried to calm himself down in the stuffy suit.

"Bdubs you'll be fine if anything happens, False and I will do this as quickly as possible," Cub reassured the smaller hermit, patting his shoulder and pushing him towards the mushroom forest.

Bdubs took one final breath and began making his way towards the overgrown table, his Comm stuttered as Cub's voice filtered through it. "Remember, Grian's not the same Grian you know, and we're here to help them."

Bdubs hummed in acknowledgement and started kicking and slashing at the giant mushrooms as wails and screeches echoed through the room.

He screamed when Grian pounced on him, the winged man tore through the suit with his talons and teeth, drawing blood as he roared in anger. "CUB, FALSE!" he yelled and thankfully False turned up with a catchpole and she quickly looped it around Grian's neck and pulled.

"Bdubs go help Cub" False, held on tight as she ordered the other hermit. Bdubs didn't need to be told twice and ran off, leaving False with an agitated Grian.

Grian stumbled and screeched when wails and panicked cries sounded through the room, Grian gave off an answering call and struggled harder against the catchpole, biting at the wire and shaking his head. Still, the HEP member held strong as her partners captured the rest of the Resistance members.

They put them into cages, no matter how hard they run, or weave through the foliage, one by one they get captured XB, Etho, Ren, Impulse, Stress.

Unfortunately, they had found Jevin in the pond, and he too had been affected, with what looks like axolotl whiskers and tail, Bdubs luckily had a bucket in hand that could fit him. Still, it proved to be difficult when Jevin kept splashing them with water and the others let out crying wails and howls.

Grian kept struggling and struggling, and False growled "Stay still Gri, we're trying to help you" False pulled and pushed Grian into the ground, making him yelp and growl, clawing at his neck to get rid of the wire. 

When Bdubs finally got Jevin into the bucket, Cub quickly put him inside one of the cages before he could jump out. The Resistance whimpered as Grian started getting tired, tears rolled down his cheeks as he saw his kids trapped and caged up and he slowly but surely gave up and fell limp due to the exhaustion.

He whines at his kids, reassuring them that they were going to be okay, they were going to be together, hoping against all hope he could keep this promise.

He felt False jab a needle into his neck and flinched as the drugs slowly pulled him under.

The final thing he saw was his children getting the same treatment before everything went dark.

  
  



	3. The Cells

The Agency decided to put them in separate cells, a brightly lit white room with one wall being reinforced glass. A bed was placed into a corner of each room, and the resistance members were laid on them.

Although eventually they curled up and slept like their animal counterparts, and wasn't that a horrifying discovery, in the three days it took for them to capture and move to the HEP headquarters they noticed the extra appendages and growths on the Resistance.

Grian had wings and a lion tail that ended with feathers instead of fur, he also had talons and claws on his fingers and toes respectively, he lost two feet in height. Mushrooms grew where his skin could be shown and even on the appendages as well, his eyes were coloured mycelium.

The others were a different story; they all gained ears, tails, teeth and claws of their animals, Ren's was an African Wild Dog, Etho; an Arctic Fox, Stress; a Chinchilla.

Impulse also had these attributes, with the added feature of cat whiskers that belonged to a Siamese, if what Scar says is true.

XB, including these appendages, had antlers, they were small, no bigger than Cub's thumb, but sharp, very sharp.

Jevin was the most unusual; he had the whiskers of an Axolotl and the tail of one too, he had to be kept in the bucket to reduce the risk of hurting him.

Unfortunately, they had miscalculated how much drugs they could give them and the kitlings, as Bdubs called them, had woken up before the HEP agency could hook them up to a monitor.

They started wailing and clawing at their eyes, Ren had run headfirst into the glass wall and curled up, whimpering and howling. Jevin splashed and kept bumping into the walls of his bucket, even tipping it over in his panic, The HEP had to come in and bolt the bucket down, but even then, Jevin splashed and writhed as he panicked. The others seemed to scramble, and it was only when they ducked under the bed that they seemed to calm down. 

However, they still cry out, calling and wailing in a mournful and unnerving tone. The HEP hadn't a clue just what they're calling out for; Help? from who?

It took them a while to realise that the lights were the problem; they theorised it was either the three weeks of living underground or a symptom of the infection that made them photosensitive. Nonetheless, they turned the lights off, and their wails steadily decreased into whimpers.

The mushrooms on their bodies emitted a small glow as the lights dimmed.

Tango decided to do something bold, starting with Impulse. He tapped at the glass containing his friend, Impulse flinched and yowled, Tango stuttered "Hey, Impulse it's okay" Tango cooed, he knew he shouldn't be treating his friend as a kid, let alone an animal. But, then again, that's precisely what he is, a baby animal. "It's me, Tango."

Tango hushed him as he slowly entered the cell, muttering reassurances to his friend "I'm not here to hurt you, buddy, just here to talk"

Impulse cowered, pressing himself against the wall and under the bed, he yowled and panicked, and his tail thrashed, as Tango sat down on the floor beside the bed.

"C'mon Imp; I know you recognise me." The infected hermit whined and pressed himself deeper. Tango sighed "Zedaph worried about you, and-and I am too"

He fiddled with his sleeves, as he listened to his friend whimper in fear. "Impulse-" 

A roar reverberated through the lab, and Tango quickly got up and ran for the door, as Impulse tried to dash towards it. He closed the door behind him and Impulse scratched and clawed at the surface, his yowls adding to the harmony of wails and scraping from the other members.

"I'm sorry bud" He fell and rested his back against the glass wall, covering his ears as the kitling clawed at the glass, "I'm so so sorry."

The roaring continued, and the other HEP members scrambled for the cameras inside each cell, most of the Resistance were clawing and howling, the sounds grew desperate as they realised that Grian had woken up.

He was screeching and letting out a mournful cry, shuffling around the cage in search of his kids, when he heard their calls, he called back and ran forward.

He smashed into the glass and fell back, he growled and started throwing himself against the glass, again and again, the HEP members dashed towards the cells and got there just in time to see the glass start to crack and blood drip down Grian's face.

"Stop him!" Scar yelled, and the others jumped into action, False and Cub entered the room to try to stop him from hurting himself more, but Grian slashed at them, hissing at them and puffing his feathers up to make him appear larger. 

False threw herself at the infected hermit and tried to pin him down, but Grian kicked her into the wall and Cub quickly replaced her, Grian bit Cub, forcing the pharaoh to let go and clutch at his bleeding arm.

"FALSE, CUB" Scar screamed and grunted when Grian tackled him to the floor and dashed off, following the distressed cries made by the others.

"Keralis, Scar, get False and Cub to the infirmary, Bdubs you're with me" Xisuma ordered, and followed the changed hermit.


	4. The Escape

Xisuma and Bdubs followed the trail of blood, already they had lost sight of Grian, whether he started flying or he had a higher speed in this form, they didn’t know.

Unknown to them Grian had noticed them following and began weaving through the maze of hallways and corridors before he ripped apart the ventilation shaft and climbed through, he passed the confused hermits and followed his kitling's cries.

Meanwhile, Tango sat against the glass, curled up with his head on his knees, muttering apologies as 'what ifs' ran around in his head like a carousel. He listened to his friend's cries, wishing he could do something about them, but Impulse wouldn't let him near him.

A soft tap on the glass jolted him out of his wallow, and he looked back to see a soft glow of white and blue emanating from his friend as it illuminated Impulse's face. He curiously pressed himself against the glass and tilted his head up at Tango.

Tango placed a hand on the glass too, and Impulse's tail flicked. "I know you're still in there Imp; we just have to help you through the fog." Impulse tilted his head and meowed at him.

Tango flinched.

"I'll fix you bud," Tango sighed and got up, he'd figured it would be best to talk to Cub about future treatments or possible cures.

He didn't notice a soft glow of purple and blue below him as the mother spore followed the cries of his children, Grian popped out of the vent inside Impulse's cell, Stress and Ren was hanging off his wings, and the Siamese infected ran to his mother and nuzzled him in greeting. 

The four retreated into the vent, and the glows from their eyes and mushrooms disappeared as they slowly picked the rest of their small family up.

Xisuma and Bdubs were frantic once they couldn't find where Grian was, and unfortunately for them, the others seem to be disappearing as well.

Bdubs punched the wall in frustration as Xisuma decided where to check next, "where could they be? where could they be?" The builder could hear his admin worry over their fellow hermits, as he leaned against the wall and sank, he covered his face with his hands and groaned.

“X, take a break, we won’t be able to find them let alone catch them if we’re this tired” Bdubs suggested and X sighed, and shook his head.

“No, we have to keep searching, there’s no telling if this mycelium infection is contagious or not'' X stared at Bdubs’s tired form, whether it was because it’s getting dark or something much more sinister X hadn’t a clue. “Are you okay?”

Bdubs hummed and sighed; he was getting fatigued, all this running around trying to recapture the infected as well as ignore a similar incident that put him at the heart of the sickness had caused him to feel drained both physically and mentally. He doesn’t know how much more of this he could take before he breaks.

“Bdubs? Bdubs?!” X yelled and dropped to his side. Bdubs jolted out of his thoughts and looked at X with tired eyes, “Hey, stay with me.” 

Bdubs huffed, “I’m not going anywhere X, it’s just” he debated on whether or not to admit to the admin his fears. He grew quiet as he contemplated, he didn’t want to add on to the problems the HEP are dealing with, but what if it’s happening again? He could still feel the vines creeping up as the Jungle Madness overtook him. “What if it’s happening again?” he whispered as he curled into himself “The Madness is back.”

Xisuma flinched and breathed heavily; his hands curled into a fist as he shook with rage “It’s not back BdoubleO I made sure of it” He comforted him.

“But what if they don’t come back from this?” his worries and fears started spilling out before he could stop them “What if it is the Jungle Madness? What if it mutated and now it won’t let go? The rest of the NHO and I were lucky we managed to snap out of it but what if they don’t” Tears pricked at his eyes, “what if Etho has to go through it again?” Bdubs was gripping Xisuma’s armour now; fat tears rolled down his cheeks as Xisuma rubbed his back comfortingly.

“Bdubs,” He pulled the distraught HEP member to his chest as he rubbed his back “ I promise it won’t happen again, I won’t give up on them so neither should you okay?” he reassured him and felt Bdubs give him a small nod.

Bdubs fell asleep like that and X breathed a sigh of relief, in truth, he didn't know if he could keep his promise, and unbeknownst to Bdubs, he had only given a voice to X's own fears.

“I’ll fix this, don’t worry about it” he doesn’t know if he’s talking to Bdubs or himself, he picked the smaller builder up and walked to the infirmary.

Scar looked towards the door as it opened, he rushed to Xisuma and helped him get Bdubs onto a bed “What happened? Who did this?”

X sighed “I'm pretty sure it’s just exhaustion Scar, he’ll be fine after a few hours of sleep.” he sat next to Bdubs' bed as Scar sighed in relief.

“Don’t scare me like that.”

“Sorry”

They grew quiet, thoughts raced across their minds as Cub, False, and Bdubs slept peacefully, luckily Grian hadn’t bit Cub too hard, and it was only the shock that made him let go, and False had been battered and bruised but nothing broken. Tango was upstairs working on possible cures or treatments, but Cub was usually the one that had the medical prowess to come up with possible ones.

But that didn’t change the fact that the Resistance was gone, they had to close all the entrances and put the entire base into lockdown, no one gets in or out, and they’d find out if the infection is contagious.


	5. The Siamese Trust

It's been a week, False and Cub were in the clear.

Unfortunately, False had lost her memory, and the rest of the HEP agency decided to hide the infected from as many hermits as possible, so they lied about what exactly hurt her. But other than that the infection wasn't contagious.

As it turned out, the Resistance was hiding in the vents, and Grian clawed and bit at those that got too close to them; eventually, they managed to sedate them and get them in a single cell so they wouldn't have a reason to escape again.

During all this Tango had been slowly gaining Impulse's trust, the Siamese cat hybrid always bound up to him and purred whenever he would come near the glass, much to his mother's worry, but these last few days Grian seemed to be easing up to him.

Tango always makes sure that he doesn't forget that Impulse is his friend and not a new pet to play with. 

But every day it was getting more and more challenging to remember that. It was getting more and more challenging to see them as sentient and adults, instead of animals and children.

Grian wasn't helping much, considering the mother spore was always protective of the rest of the group, and although Tango could come inside the cell from time to time, Grian would bat and howl at him to leave once he felt like he had overstayed his visit.

At least he never used his claws on him, he's seen the injuries on False and Cub, and he knows Scar had been worrying himself to death over Cub’s in particular.

Because of this, Scar and Xisuma decided it would be best if Tango himself were in charge of their food, and so far, Tango feels like he had been doing a good job.

They liked to eat mostly mushrooms, and mushroom stew, Stress, Jevin, and XB turned their noses up at meat, while Impulse, Ren and Etho didn't seem to mind it much. Grian threw the food the kids couldn’t or didn’t eat at the glass whenever one of the HEP members were to pass by, and it always makes Bdubs jump much to the Resistance’s amusement.

But other than those incidents, Tango figured it’d be best if he listened to the pseudo mother of the group as well as their animalistic traits. In retrospect, he should’ve listened to their characteristics earlier. But he was in denial, thinking that maybe if they eat the foods, they usually eat they’d get better or heal up.

Instead, he made them sick; Cub said that it was a good thing and that they know now that their digestive systems had also changed due to the infection.

Horrified, Tango could do nothing but sputter out a weak argument against treating their friends like lab rats, but one look at their mayor told him to shut up.

As of now, it was feeding time, and Tango had prepared food for all of them, when he came inside the cell and placed the tray on the floor, he watched as Grian came over to test it before letting the children feed. However, Tango felt like it’s more out of habit than it is untrustworthiness, or that’s what he tells himself.

He sat down against the wall as they ate and tried to take a bite out of each other’s food, Grian always stopped them before they ate something that could make them sick.

He heard from the others that Mumbo and Cub were working on a translation device for them and Tango’s excited, he might not get to hear Impulse’s voice soon, but at least it was a step in the right direction. Tango was too busy catching and preparing their food to indeed be of help, but he trusts the two to do what they could to help them return to normal.

The little hermits started to yawn, and he got ready to leave before Grian could hiss at him, but a small hybrid cat made his way over to him and climbed up his lap, effectively stopping him from doing so. Impulse curled up in his embrace as Tango stayed frozen, having heard a low growl whenever he tried to move.

Not that he would want to, his friend was here on his lap, and although he’s under the scrutiny of Grian’s watchful and protective gaze, the soft breathing and purring coming from Impulse brought tears to his eyes.

His friend. His poor, sick, friend. Tango couldn’t do anything to help him, no matter what, from then on he’ll make sure they’ll find a cure, and everything could go back to normal. Team ZIT wouldn’t have to be separated anymore, but even though that’s a long while away, Tango has hope for the future. “Everything’s going to be okay Imp” he whispered, “I promise.” 

While Tango was too busy watching Impulse and making sure the Siamese didn't fall and get hurt, Grian had been pushing the kitlings into their respective spaces for a nap. The red-eyed hermit brought blankets and pillows for them, and the family had built a nest out of the soft fabrics.

Grian came over to Tango after he had been content with the positions of his family and took Impulse away from him, a small whine escaped the siamese hybrid but stopped when he curled up against his brothers and sister.

Grian settled himself in the middle of the pile, and the kitlings subconsciously moved closer, he nodded at Tango before dipping his tail into Jevin’s bucket and covering every one of his kids with his wings.

Tango had gained the trust of the mother spore.

If only he had fought against treating his friends like lab rats more, maybe then he’d still have his trust, and Impulse would look at him again.


End file.
